Post Courier article on Lucy George and her 28 children.
Nearly five years ago, Fr Martin noticed in the back yard of the priory an old woman picking up sticks - rather like the woman of Zarephath (cf. 1 Kings 17: 10). Indeed, the medieval sequence came to his mind:
Ligna legens in Sarepta
spem salutis est adepta
pauper muliercula.
["Picking up sticks in Zarephata, a poor little woman gained hope of salvation..."]
The sun was hot, and she rested awhile under the shade of our trees, so Father Martin offered her a cool drink and a biscuit - and there began a friendship. It turned out that Lucy George - for such is her name - was collecting firewood to cook for the many orphaned and sometimes disabled children that she took under her wing in the nearby Nine Mile settlement.
Over the years the community has helped out Lucy with food and occasionally photocopying, since she also distributes material promoting the Rosary. But even we did not realise quite the extent of her charitable work until we read this article in the Post Courier. Happily, a prayer group with some connections in the right places had also befriended Lucy, and was able to get some corporate help for an extraordinary woman doing some extraordinary work.
(Click on the image of the newspaper article for an enlargement.)
Ligna legens in Sarepta
spem salutis est adepta
pauper muliercula.
["Picking up sticks in Zarephata, a poor little woman gained hope of salvation..."]
The sun was hot, and she rested awhile under the shade of our trees, so Father Martin offered her a cool drink and a biscuit - and there began a friendship. It turned out that Lucy George - for such is her name - was collecting firewood to cook for the many orphaned and sometimes disabled children that she took under her wing in the nearby Nine Mile settlement.
Over the years the community has helped out Lucy with food and occasionally photocopying, since she also distributes material promoting the Rosary. But even we did not realise quite the extent of her charitable work until we read this article in the Post Courier. Happily, a prayer group with some connections in the right places had also befriended Lucy, and was able to get some corporate help for an extraordinary woman doing some extraordinary work.
(Click on the image of the newspaper article for an enlargement.)
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